Tulsa, Okla. - Fittingly, it came down to Georgia's two senior captains, and then to Travis Helgeson.

Helgeson, who was scorned for transferring from Texas two years ago because he "wanted to compete for national championships," put the finishing touches on the Bulldogs' second one in a row as he closed out Dimitar Kutrovsky 6-3 in the third set of their best-of-three singles match to give Georgia a 4-2 victory over the Longhorns.

Fellow senior and co-captain Luis Flores closed out his match at No. 3 singles 6-1 in the third set just minutes before Helgeson's come-from-behind win. After trailing 1-3, Helgeson won the last five games, including a shutout on serve in the final frame.

"I don't know that I'm going to realize what just happened until tomorrow," said Helgeson, clutching the championship trophy under his arm in the postmatch celebration on center court at the Case Tennis Center. "Last year was sweet. This year might have been even sweeter."

It definitely was different. Last season the Bulldogs steamrolled college tennis with nary a close match en route to a perfect 32-0 record and 4-0 win in the championship final. But they lost All-Americans John Isner and Matic Omerzel from that squad and endured all manner of injuries and illness this season.

Flores broke not one foot but two feet — within weeks of each other — and both required surgeries that sidelined him for two months. Helgeson sat out several matches with Achilles tendon issues, and two players missed extended periods with mononucleosis, one early in the season and the other late.

"The toughest part was getting back the rhythm and confidence that we had before," Flores said. "But the key was believing in each other. We never stopped believing we were the best team."

In the end, the Bulldogs (27-3) won their sixth NCAA championship. The other five all came in Athens. They trail only Stanford (15) in national titles since the team format was established in 1977. Georgia is also the first repeat champion since Stanford won four in a row from 1995-98.

It left the Bulldogs' eloquent-speaking coach, Manuel Diaz, momentarily speechless.

"I'm out of words after what these guys accomplished tonight," he said. "I've never felt so awkward trying to rationalize things. Probably today I did less coaching than I've ever done. I saw it in their eyes yesterday. These guys just repeated like champions."

The Bulldogs lost the doubles point for the second straight match and only the sixth time all season but got singles wins from sophomores Nate Schnugg and Jamie Hunt in addition to the two seniors. Flores (7-0), Schnugg (9-0) and Hunt (4-0) have never lost in their NCAA careers and are now 20-0 combined.

Schnugg, a 6-foot-4 right-hander from Medford, Ore., was named the tournament's most valuable player.

"The MVP award doesn't even compare to this national championship," said Schnugg, now 67-10 in two seasons at Georgia. "It's the most unbelievable feeling I've ever had. This group, everybody counted us out. But look what we did. No other team could recover and do what we did."

No. 7-seed Texas, which Georgia had beaten in the ITA National Indoor semifinals, finishes at 25-6.

The season will continue for Helgeson, Schnugg, Flores and Hunt as all were selected for the singles draw, which begins today. Hunt and Schugg will also compete in doubles, which starts Thursday.

Five Georgia Tech players (Amanda McDowell, Whitney McCray, Kristi Miller, Maya Johansson and Kirtsten Flower) and two Georgia players (Kelley and Yvette Hyndman) will continue in the women's individual tournament. McDowell was named to the NCAA's all-tournament team.

• UCLA 4, California 0: The Bruins won the women's national championship 4-0 over their Pac-10 rivals.